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Two-way traffic is promised to return on Monday to the Market Place in Warminster after the third and final phase of the town centre improvement scheme ends.

 

"There are two ways to look at this," claims former councillor Paul Macdonald.

 

"Over three years grief and hardship to local businesses and inconvenience to local people or the opportunity to learn from the experience, make sure it never happens like this again for any project in our town, and now take the best advantage from it."

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One of the vision ideas is to  make good use of the wider pavements is to bring a 'market feel' to the Market Place on Fridays by offering the weekly stall holders the chance to sell from there..

 

"I also think we have to take a close look at the problem that retail businesses will now face with no two or three minute parking provision for this street to pop in and grab a paper or get a prescription or use a cash machine or even buy some bird seed," adds Paul.

 

There have also been calls for a one-way system around East Street, Station Road, Fairfield Road and Imber Road.

 

"Sadly, those who should have had the nous to use the various road closures and one-way systems used during this very prolonged event did not gather any useful information," adds Paul.

 

The town centre improvement scheme was carried out by Wiltshire County Council after using the services of Mouchel Parkman to come up with the scheme.

 

It has suffered overrun and delay after delay but after a year of being constantly featured in the hot topics of vfw the promised four to five weeks appears to be honoured on the last day of that pledge.

 

Already one piece of street furniture, a bus shelter, is coming in for criticism after an East End resident compalined that it spoilt the view in aletter to the Warminster Journal.

Steve Dancey added: ''The comments about the shelter comes from David Dodge, a long-standing and respected member of the Warminster community.

''I wholeheartedly agree with what he had to say about the bus shelter near the Old Bell. It looks monstrous in that position and if Prince Charles ever comes through no doubt any sharp-eyed lip-reader will spot the word 'carbuncle'  being spoken by HRH''